Husband guilty of murder with SUV

Defense had argued he accidentally hit his estranged wife

March 02, 2007|By George Houde, Special to the Tribune

A man accused of killing his estranged wife by running her over with his sport-utility vehicle in a confrontation outside her Hoffman Estates apartment building was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder.

A jury in Cook County Circuit Court deliberated for nearly three hours before convicting Martin McCoy, 32, of killing his wife, Frances, 28.

"This was no accident," Hite-Ross said. "It's no less a murder because an automobile was used instead of a gun."

Jurors heard three days of testimony during the trial before Judge Thomas Fecarotta Jr. in the Rolling Meadows branch of Circuit Court.

Witnesses said Martin McCoy was waiting for his wife on Feb. 17, 2006, as she and her girlfriend came out of their apartment in the 1000 block of Atlantic Avenue.

He used a golf club to smash the windows on the passenger side of Frances McCoy's car and then began backing up in his SUV.

Witnesses said he brushed his wife as she was pounding on the SUV and using her cell phone to call police.

In testimony earlier Thursday, McCoy said his SUV accidentally struck his wife as he tried to get away from the confrontation.

"I was trying to get out of there as fast as I could," McCoy said. "I just saw Frances right before I hit her."

But Yokovanda Smith, who said she had a relationship with the victim, testified that she heard McCoy utter an expletive toward his wife and say, "I'm going to run you over," before accelerating toward her in the SUV.

Frances McCoy died of her injuries two days later at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

She and her husband had been married for eight years before separating.

"I'm happy with the verdict, but my sister is gone," said her brother, Marcus Holland of Batavia.